mac hey sailor collection

MAC Launch Away! Blush

MAC Launch Away! Blush ($21.00 for 0.21 oz.) is described as a “true peach” with a satin finish. It looks a little pinked in the pot, but it’s more like a darkened peach–in the pot. On me, though, it turns rather pink! It’s a light-medium peony pink with warm undertones and a subtle sheen. MAC Crew is warmer and a touch darker, and this is noticeable on the cheeks, too–but Crew is also less buildable and pigmented compared to Launch Away! MAC Flower Fantasy is lighter and has a higher sheen. Chanel Brompton Road is a bit lighter and shows up less on the cheeks. Benefit Hervana is darker and sheerer. Burberry Peony is very similar but has more of a true matte finish.

It has the same drier, stiffer texture of Fleet Fast, which is typical of MAC blushes, especially of their satin finished blushes. The powder is soft to the touch and applies smoothly. The finish of Launch Away! is very subtle–the sheen is barely there and almost imperceptible once applied. It builds up easily and gave my cheeks noticeable color without having to pile it on, but it is a paler, lighter shade, so it would not be ideal for deeper skin tones–particularly because the drier texture paired with the near-matte finish can look chalky on darker complexions. When I wore this one for wear, it managed just under seven hours and started to decline and fade after that.

The Glossover

This is another blush that is going to be best on lighter complexions, but it will work well with both cool and warm undertones. If you don't like a lot of shine, shimmer, or sparkle in your blush, you may also really like the finish of this shade.

Where to Buy

Sometimes products are discontinued or limited edition, which means that a product may no longer be available at one or more retailers so you may need to shop around for those hard-to-find shades! We try to update products as they become discontinued, and if you discover a product has been discontinued, please help us help others by letting us know.

Disclosure: Temptalia uses affiliate links, which give us a small commission when you make a purchase (given to us by the retailer, at no cost to you). Your purchases help to support the site!

Even though this and Launch Away! (the other blush in this collection, which I will review after I finish concluding this post!) look rather different in the pot, they don’t look nearly as different once applied. The major difference is the overall tone, as this shade is warmer and redder, while Launch Away! appears pinker. The texture is soft, finely-milled, and a little stiff/dry; it’s not dry in a bad way so much as it’s just that type of texture. It’s not soft and dense and buttery. Fleet Fast has good color payoff and applies well against the skin and adds coral and gold warmth to cheeks. It blended out nicely when I used the 116 to apply it. I tested out the wear of both blushes yesterday (with some really excellent timing, I managed to test four cheek products, each for eight hours!), Fleet Fast wore for about seven hours before having some minor fading.

Where to Buy

Sometimes products are discontinued or limited edition, which means that a product may no longer be available at one or more retailers so you may need to shop around for those hard-to-find shades! We try to update products as they become discontinued, and if you discover a product has been discontinued, please help us help others by letting us know.

Disclosure: Temptalia uses affiliate links, which give us a small commission when you make a purchase (given to us by the retailer, at no cost to you). Your purchases help to support the site!

MAC 167SH Face Blender Brush

MAC 167SH Face Blender Brush ($34.00) is a limited edition face brush that’s made out of white goat hair. The brush head is about an inch and a half long and an inch or so at its widest point (which is at the top). It has a softly domed-shaped brush head with densely packed bristles with some give, but not so much that it’s floppy. It actually reminded me of a longer, not quite as dense or as stiff, 182, which is MAC’s buffer brush. This works in a similar fashion, but it can also apply and deposit color more accurately than if you were to use the buffer brush. The bristles are very soft to the touch and against the skin.

This brush would also work nicely for applying all-over powders to the face, because it picks up product easily but applies everything with a feathery touch. It can also blend out any harsh edges or lines from other products without much work. Due to the overall soft, airy feel of this brush, it is a great tool for soft powders, as it does not disturb the surface as much so it creates less powdery excess. I really liked this brush, though I personally prefer longer-handled brushes. It’s incredibly soft against the skin, and it’s not as specialized as some of the more recent brush releases–I love that it will be a multi-tasking tool to add to my collection.

As far as I know, MAC continues to make their full-sized brushes by hand, and “SH” stands for short-handled, as compared with “SE,” which indicates special edition–those are the kind of brushes that are mass-produced by machines for the Nordstrom and holiday brush sets. I have been told on several occasions that SH brushes are manufactured just like full-sized brushes, because they’re the same thing–just a shorter handle. This brush was manufactured in China, but this information seems to only be on the plastic sleeve it arrives in, so the handle doesn’t indicate the country of origin. I know there are a lot of fake MAC brushes out there, so I wanted to be sure to include that piece of information.

MAC Crew Highlight Powder

MAC Crew Highlight Powder ($29.00 for 0.35 oz.) is a multi-colored highlighting powder that has three primary shades: soft peach-orange with an almost matte finish, subtly yellow-toned light-medium pink with a satin-like finish, and a cool-toned pink-lilac with a satin finish. There’s also creamy beige hue, but this is an overlay of color and does not go all the way through. I made two gouges in the product to see how the colors went through, and it seemed like each main color is really what’s underneath a 1-2mm layer of the creamy beige. The composition of this reminded me of Benefit Sugarbomb and Benefit Hervana.

When the product is swirled together, the end result is a coral-tinted pink with yellow undertones. It looked a bit chalky against my skin tone when I swatched it, but it was less chalky applied to my cheeks. I think the lighter color paired with a slightly matte finish gives it a drier look, which translates into chalky on my medium skin tone. There is a very faint satin sheen, but it’s incredibly subtle. For those who love more shimmery, metallic highlighters, this is on the opposite end. MAC Flower Fantasy is lighter and shimmery. Chanel Brompton Road is lighter. Chanel Blush Horizon de Chanel is darker, yellower. Benefit Hervana is similar but more coral, lighter. Chanel Pink Cloud is lighter, less pink. MAC Stunner is darker, warmer. Burberry Peony is a smidgen darker and warmer.

The texture is soft, smooth, and finely-milled. If you want to use it as a blusher, it’s certainly do-able, even on medium skin tones. I don’t know if this genuinely highlights as it does brightens and adds some natural color to the cheeks that’s not too warm, so it’s instantly brightening and should be flattering on both cool and warm undertones. It wore around eight hours on my cheeks before staring to fade around the edges.

The Glossover

If you want to use it as a blusher, it's certainly do-able, even on medium skin tones. I don't know if this genuinely highlights as it does brightens and adds some natural color to the cheeks that's not too warm, so it's instantly brightening and should be flattering on both cool and warm undertones.

Where to Buy

Sometimes products are discontinued or limited edition, which means that a product may no longer be available at one or more retailers so you may need to shop around for those hard-to-find shades! We try to update products as they become discontinued, and if you discover a product has been discontinued, please help us help others by letting us know.

Disclosure: Temptalia uses affiliate links, which give us a small commission when you make a purchase (given to us by the retailer, at no cost to you). Your purchases help to support the site!

MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer

MAC Vestral White Nail Lacquer ($17.00 for 0.34 fl. oz.) is described as a “creamy white.” It’s a stark white cream. NARS Ecume is similar. China Glaze Snow is a bit cooler-toned. Nubar White Peony is warmer. You might even consider White-Out (thanks Brooke!), because the way this applied reminded me of being in elementary school when girls would apply White-Out like it was nail polish during class–dry, chalky, and oh-so-streaky. It’s mostly opaque after two coats, but it’s not even.

It’s not really a shocker, given that this was an awful polish when it came out two years ago (and talk about time flying by–two years ago, you could grab this for a measly $12!). It’s disappointing, though, that there were no improvements made to this formula, because it was particularly bad. It’s still runny, kind of watery (make sure to mix this one really, really well–it settles and gets extremely watery easily), and a streak-fest. The first coat was extremely streaky, and though I tried to do a thicker second coat to hide that initial coat, it couldn’t and pooled a bit around the sides and was slightly streaky even on the second coat.

It’s funny (not really), but MAC used to only increase prices by a dollar for special packaging when it was a collaboration, like when they worked with Disney on Venomous Villains, but they’ve been tacking a little extra on for anything in special packaging these days. MAC is certainly moving into a high-end price point, given that NARS’ polish retails for this much. (And many, many niche polish brands like Deborah Lippmann, Butter London, etc. are at this price point or less!)

The Glossover

It's about as streaky as I remember White-Out being during elementary school! It's streaky, uneven pigmentation, runny, and watery, which all contributed to a really horrendous application and result. There are far superior versions of white creams available on the market.

Where to Buy

Sometimes products are discontinued or limited edition, which means that a product may no longer be available at one or more retailers so you may need to shop around for those hard-to-find shades! We try to update products as they become discontinued, and if you discover a product has been discontinued, please help us help others by letting us know.

Disclosure: Temptalia uses affiliate links, which give us a small commission when you make a purchase (given to us by the retailer, at no cost to you). Your purchases help to support the site!

MAC Hey, Sailor Pigments

MAC Hey, Sailor Pigments ($21.00 for 0.15 oz.) include two shades: Naval Blue (deep smoky blue) and Old Gold (high frosted tarnished gold). They are in special packaging with the naval stripes wrapping around the clear jar and have a glossy navy blue cap (as compared to the rubberized black cap of the regular packaging). These were actually more user-friendly to use and didn’t seem to spill as much as the regular packaging, oddly enough. Please note that neither shade is recommended for use in the lip area.

Naval Blue is a dark navy blue with a hint of purple–all of the blues in this launch seem to have this kiss of purple–that makes it a real pain to photograph, because sometimes it looks purpler than it ought! It’s similar to MAC Blue Storm, which came out this past fall (and was a repromote then). It’s also similar to Givenchy Lune Mordoree. For a more in-depth review, please read this review from February This shade is permanent at PRO stores.

MAC Pigments are supposed to be long-wearing with special ingredients that enable it to adhere to the skin. I’ve tried several different shades damp over bare skin, and I typically get around eight hours of wear with minor creasing and fading. I prefer to use Pigments with MAC’s Mixing Medium, which is an adhesive base, and then I see flawless wear even after twelve hours. Over an eyeshadow primer, the wear is just about as good. Pigments can be used wet or dry, though they tend to intensify in color and in finish when applied damp or wet–but they do retain those qualities even after it dries.

P.S. — Because of the special packaging, MAC has tacked on an extra dollar, so if you have access to the permanent versions in regular packaging, those are $20 each.

The Glossover

MAC makes an excellent loose color product if you combine it with a wet or adhesive base, because they have a good formula that enables the color to bind well when damp and stay vibrant all day--but when used dry or alone, they tend to under-perform.

Where to Buy

Sometimes products are discontinued or limited edition, which means that a product may no longer be available at one or more retailers so you may need to shop around for those hard-to-find shades! We try to update products as they become discontinued, and if you discover a product has been discontinued, please help us help others by letting us know.

Disclosure: Temptalia uses affiliate links, which give us a small commission when you make a purchase (given to us by the retailer, at no cost to you). Your purchases help to support the site!